Material-handling machines, such as excavators, wheel loaders, forklifts, and the like, may be used to transport materials about a worksite. An operator may provide control inputs that cause an implement of the machine to perform a sequence of operations that complete a work cycle. The sequence of operations may include loading the implement with material, lifting the implement and material, transporting the material across the worksite via the implement, and unloading or dumping the material from the implement.
US Patent Application Publication Number 2015/0077557 (hereinafter “the '557 publication”), purports to describe a system which senses a target on a towed implement and automatically controls the steering and movement of a vehicle to align the vehicle with the towed implement which is to be coupled to the vehicle, such as a wagon or trailer. According to the '557 publication, a towing vehicle, such as an agricultural tractor, has a conventional hitch and/or a drawbar for coupling to an implement, and a pair of cameras that are mounted on a rear upper portion of the towing vehicle. A target is mounted on the towed implement so as to be viewable from the direction of the vehicle.
The vehicle of the '557 publication further includes and electronic control unit (ECU) that processes the images from the cameras and generates tractor movement commands that cause the vehicle to move to a position that permits the implement to be coupled to the tractor. However, the vehicle and implement alignment system of the '557 publication may not benefit other cycles performed by other machines, such as cycles of material-handling machines that benefit from movement of the machine relative to a worksite, coordinated with movement of a machine implement relative to the machine. Accordingly, there exists a need for improved material-handling machine operating systems and methods to address the aforementioned challenges and/or other problems in the art.
It will be appreciated that this background description has been created to aid the reader, and is not a concession that any of the indicated problems or challenges were themselves previously known in the art.